Monday, January 14, 2019

I have viewed this scene under thousands of different atmospheric and weather conditions. It's the view you have on the ferry heading to Edmonds from Kingston. I'm often struck dumb by the beauty of the area I am blessed to live in, but fortunately I had my camera the day this cloud formation was blowing in from the south and had the presence of mind to take a shot.The photograph through the salty ferry windows was not all that great....but the painting turned out okay because I could remember the light and the feel of the wind and the smell of the salt air...

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Grabbed a handful of old photos as I ran out the door to attend the Mitch Baird workshop. This shot of the Sol Duc was one of them. I had been wanting to paint it for awhile so was glad I brought it. The techniques that Mitch was sharing with us really helped me solve some problems of simplifying shapes and harmonizing color. For example he had us try to "posterize shapes at the start of the painting. Basically wash in the big shapes with a relative value color of the shape,whether warm or cool..(You can do more research on this technique online). That was helpful! After I filled in the shapes it was easy to model the subtle value and temperature shifts within the shapes as long as you retain the overall value of the respective shape.

Friday, January 04, 2019

I recently took a Mitch Baird workshop who I highly recommend as an instructor. The workshop focused primarily on value and color. He specifically did not talk much about drawing or composition since those disciplines are a given in producing a quality painting. I loved this workshop! I filled a few pages of my sketchbook with notes that I will not go over here....You should take your own Mitch Baird workshop!... But one color tip that really helped me get the distant mountain granite color was mixing the right amounts of Viridian and Alizerin Crimson. They make a nice juicy grey! He also drilled into us the right time to use the warm and cool primaries that should make up the foundation of your palette.

We worked from photos in this class because of the winter weather but I used a sketch done during my brief visit to Grand Teton National Park this summer. I wanted to see how I could do with just the sketch and no photo reference.

I have started making my own sketchbooks from 90lb cover stock which I like for sketching in graphite but is also heavy enough for water media. Let me know if you would like one! I'll send you more info.
Thanks and happy sketching!!

Wednesday, January 02, 2019

Grand Teton National Park has become one of my favorite places to paint! I had a chance to spend a few days there last year on my way to the Central City plein air festival in Colorado. I only had time to paint a couple plein air studies this time but I did a lot of sketching and took a lot of reference photos which I have been working on and will post in the coming days.
While painting this I was surrounded by tourists....which can be unnerving ,,,but if you plan on doing competition painting it is important to get used to people watching you paint. The best way is to get out and paint in a crowded area when there is no pressure to make a great painting. You will be surprised how much encouragement you will receive from passerby
I'm realizing again how far behind I am on the blog as it is 2019 already!! ....and I have lots of adventures in 2018 to post about....yikes!